Resisting Advances
by a quarter tone apart
Summary: It's 1977, and a shadow of darkness is beginning to descend upon the Wizarding World, affecting even those safely within the walls of Hogwarts. Emmeline Vance and her friends are in their seventh year of schooling,and things have changed with Sirius Black
1. Prologue

Despite everything that had been happening lately, it was impossible for Emmeline Vance not to feel the anticipated surge of adrenaline through her veins as she lurched forward through the brick barrier of Kings Cross Station.

"This gets me every bloody time." Were the last words she heard her father say in an amused tone, and Emmeline bit back a smile as she squeezed her eyes shut tight. She'd faced wayward Bludgers and the occasional girl fight, but running point blank towards inanimate objects was not her forte. The initial sadness at bidding her parents a good-bye wore away upon stepping onto the platform , unable to prevent her lips from parting into a smile of awe at the great, red Hogwarts Express, poised on the train-tracks emitting a honk of steam signalling that there were a mere five minutes to go until the clock struck eleven.

It had been an eventful Christmas, to say the least, starting from the very moment she had stepped foot off the train at the beginning of her holidays. "What on _earth_ have you done to your hair?" Her mother's words of greeting had been expected, and Emmeline had been rather proud of herself at doing something completely irrational and impulsive. The naturally chocolate brown locks she had worn all her life had been attacked by her overexcited best friends, dyed golden blonde and cropped from waist length to a few inches below her shoulders.

"Holy Merlin." Dorcas Meadowes had uttered slowly, upon admiring her handiwork in the mirror of the Gryffindor girls washrooms. Emmeline's dark blue eyes were more prominent than ever now, and instead of looking younger than her recently turned sixteen years as per usual, she could pass for being of age. Gone were the days where she melded into the background of her three best friends with whom she went everywhere with, in the last few weeks of the schooling term, Emmeline had received more attention from the opposite sex than she collectively had in her previous five years at Hogwarts.

She wasn't particularly timid or shy, it was just when compared to the exquisite and unique girls comprising of the sixth year Gryffindor dormitory, Emmeline had been overshadowed by them. Lily Evans was the prefect, the sweet golden-hearted girl with auburn tresses and eyes so green they gave Slytherin house a run for their gold. Lily was closest with Dorcas Meadowes, the shortest of them all, petite with elfin features, alabaster skin of a creamy hue and hair so dark it was almost black. And then there was Marlene McKinnon, the natural blonde, with sun-kissed skin. Marley had been ecstatic in convincing Emmeline to finally change up her look, welcoming her to the exciting life changing decision that was becoming a blonde as though it was a club.

"Honestly Emmeline, you looked fine without all …this." Her mother had finished flatly, eyeing Emmeline's newly golden tresses warily as they walked to the carpark of the train station. Nadine Vance was the Head of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic, conservative and logical did not begin to describe the half of her tendencies to be uptight about certain things, such as Emmeline's physical appearance. It was her father that had convinced Nadine to refrain from charming Emmeline's hair back to the way it was. David Vance was a writer by trade, penning short stories here and there for literary magasines. The muggle that could blend into any crowd, and one of the most important wizards in the Ministry, they made quite the pairing. Despite this, there had been no objections from either party's families to the wedding, not even from Nadine's pure-blood parents. Thus, Emmeline was the literal definition of being half-blooded.

"I think it looks lovely. You look like Debbie Harry!" her father had exclaimed, and at this Emmeline had been uplifted. Any reference the muggle punk scene was enough to satisfy her, and she ignored her mother's kind-hearted criticism.

The blonde hair hadn't been the biggest event occurring during the Christmas break, unfortunately. Nadine was in and out of work constantly. The borderline terrorist behaviour of You-Know-Who was now well known throughout the Wizarding World, even the muggles were beginning to notice disappearances and destruction. Despite being the daughter of a witch holding a key role in the attempt to place a ceasefire on the workings of the terrorist, Emmeline wasn't disclosed much information about the occurrences.

But now, upon returning back to Hogwarts for a sense of what she hoped would be normalcy, Emmeline wanted nothing more than to rid herself of the political strife and deal with normal teenage problems. Currently, they were: dealing with the ridiculous amount of schoolwork they had been receiving this year and upholding her grades in order to ensure her position as an Auror upon graduating, convince Lily that she was in denial about James Potter's advances, and maybe earn herself a relationship comparable to the current love between Dorcas and Remus. They were adorable, there was no other way of putting it, and despite being happy for her friend, Emmeline couldn't resist from being jealous.

Of course, it wasn't as though she had anyone on her mind that could rival the high standards set by Remus of being a good boyfriend. Her closest friends were James and co, and two of them were taken, and the other two were just…her friends. Emmeline couldn't imagine not talking muggle music with Sirius, or teasing poor Petey about something or the other.

Then again, things with her and Sirius had…changed. The dynamics of their friendship had been thrown into whack ever since the end-of-term Christmas party thrown by Professor Slughorn. A few moments carried away under the damn mistletoe had ensured that they hadn't spoken to each other in weeks for fear of bringing it up again. It had been just a kiss- or two, or three, Emmeline had managed to convince herself, but if that had been the case, why were they being so weird about it?

Maybe it was because from what she had gathered ,neither had told their friends, or anyone for that matter about it. Or perhaps it was the fact that Sirius had still been very much in a relationship with the drop-dead-gorgeous Hufflepuff prefect, the blonde one who never went anywhere without a smile on her face. Charity call-me-Cherry Burbage, that was her name. She was bubbly and vivacious, and an all-around lovely person, but Emmeline had never viewed her as Sirius' type. Their relationship had ended the day after the party, though Emmeline had only heard on word of mouth.

Her thought process was interrupted by a mass of blonde hair hurtling towards her, and before she had time to react, arms were thrown around Emmeline's neck, catching her surprise. "Marley!" she laughed, hugging her friend in greeting, and allowing her to drag her by the arm towards the train.

Despite everything, it was good to be back at school.


	2. Chapter 1

The seats of their train compartment were laden to the brim with sweets- Chocolate Frogs, Drooble's gum, and licorice wands, enough to feed an army. Their diet matched the atmosphere of the current conversation occurring between three seventeen year old girls- sickly sweet.

"I can't believe you wrote each other every day." Marlene snorted, smirking at a fairly flushed Dorcas. "That's-"

"Adorable." Emmeline chimed in, winking at Dorcas. Marlene shook her head.

"I was going to say rubbish, considering you never wrote me once!" Marlene picked up a wrapped and chucked it across at Dorcas, who raised her arms in an attempt to shield herself, as Emmeline dissolved into laughter.

"She would have been fairly busy, penning love poems and sealing each letter with a kiss." Emmeline grinned, winking at Dorcas, who shook her head.

"Both of you can shut it. I'll have you know, we didn't write each other _every_ day."

"Every other day, then." Marlene grinned, rolling her eyes. Before Dorcas was given the opportunity to retaliate, the carriage door slid open. Emmeline felt her stomach drop as she instantly recognised the tall young man standing in the doorway, the slightest shadow of stubble on his angled jaw. Her laughter subsided rather instantaneously.

"Alright, girls?" Sirius Black said smoothly, one of his hands sitting in the pocket of his jeans. "Have any of you seen Wormtail? I've been pacing the corridors for ages, and the other two are doing their Prefect duties and things."

"I saw him with Benjy at the platform, but not since then." Marlene shrugged. "Sorry, Sirius."

"You're welcome to sit with us. We don't bite." Dorcas said kindly, nodding to the empty seat across from her, right next to Sirius.

"I'm sure Peter's around somewhere." Emmeline said quickly, but no one appeared to take any notice of her, least of all Sirius as he strolled inside the carriage, sliding the door shut behind him and sinking into the seat by the window. Emmeline sighed, scooting a couple inches away from him under the pretences of rifling through their sweet collection for more Drooble's.

Emmeline wondered to herself why she was acting like such a bloody child. She knew the answer. Speaking to Sirius would mean eventually confronting him about their last encounter, but as he engaged in conversation with Dorcas and Marlene, she tilted her head to one side, unable to resist shooting glances at him to see if he would notice. Perhaps it'd meant less than Emmeline had thought it had…though why would he split with his girlfriend the very next day if that was the case?

"I'm going to go find Lils." Emmeline said decidedly, as she stood up rather abruptly.

"She's doing head girl duty, idiot." Marlene broke off her sentence to look up at Emmeline, and the others followed suit. Emmeline was suddenly aware of Sirius' eyes on her face, and she glanced down towards the ground.

"I've, er, got to ask her something." Emmeline mumbled, and immediately excused herself from the carriage, shutting the door gently behind her. As she made to walk down the corridor, she didn't hear the carriage door open and close once behind her, and jumped when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Em." Sirius said blankly, his grey eyes searching her blue ones for a sign of recognition. Emmeline did little to acknowledge him, but nodding slightly, shrugging her shoulders as though daring him to say more.

He took the unofficial challenge. "Why've you been ignoring me?" Emmeline hadn't braced herself for the question, she'd been hoping to postpone this conversation for as long as possible. She pressed her lips together, leaning back on the carriage door slightly.

"Sirius, we've just had a week of holidays. I haven't been ignoring you." Emmeline said plainly, blinking in a meek attempt to break the obvious tension.

"Before that, though. You haven't spoken to me since Sluggy's." He stepped towards her, closing the oddly long distance between them.

"There was nothing to speak about." Emmeline breathed, averting her eyes from his gaze and looking down at the carpeted floor.

"Nothing." Sirius repeated.

"Nothing. Look, I've got to find Lily so…see you later, yeah?" Sirius ran a hand through his hair and shrugged his shoulders, Emmeline took the opportunity to turn on her heels and walk down the train, without looking back.

Liking Sirius Black? It was out of the question. Off the table. He was her _friend _, it was too weird to even think about. Besides, feelings didn't come summoned out of nowhere. They had to build up over time, into something that could count for more than a couple of shots of firewhisky and a sprig of mistletoe at a party.

Both of them had dated other people. Sirius had his fair share of girlfriends, none lasting all too long. Emmeline, on the other hand, had only kissed three people in her life.

The first, her first kiss, had been with her neighbour, a muggle boy named Paul. Emmeline had only kissed him because he asked her to, and because he had the same name as Paul McCartney. It had lasted for all of three seconds, before she'd tore away and ran straight out of his backyard, blushing furiously.

Her next share of kisses was with the same boy, in her sixth year. Emmeline's first and to this date, her only boyfriend. Benjy Fenwick was a Hufflepuff boy in their year, and when Edgar had told Alice who told Lily who told Emmeline that Benjy had a crush on her, Emmeline had accompanied him to Hogsmeade. Their relationship had lasted for a month and a half before Benjy told her that he loved her, and Emmeline had broken up with him two days later.

And the third, the third boy she'd kissed had been none other than the boy she'd just walked away from. Sirius Black, who'd glanced up and seen the mistletoe this past Christmas, and while Emmeline had initially made to just laugh it off, once she'd felt his arm snake around her waist and pull her so close to him that her body was pressing against his, that was it. She was done for, and they'd kissed in that manner for ten minutes straight before they'd realised what they were doing, and parted rather awkwardly.

"Shunpike! Watch where you're going." A disgruntled looking Lily Evans pushed past a rather pimply third year boy, who stumbled over his sheepish apologies.

"Lily!" Emmeline called in a rather relieved tone, and both girls smiled in seeing eachother, embracing.

"Merlin, I wish you weren't Head Girl." Emmeline muttered. "You're always off being superwoman when I need to speak to you." Lily raised her eyebrows.

"Superwoman?"

"You know what I mean." Emmeline rolled her eyes exasperatedly,

Lily laughed. "What's up, Ems? First day back and you're already worried about something. The hair looks good, I'm glad your mum didn't change it back?"

"What? Oh yeah, me too." Emmeline tugged on one of her blonde strands of hair absent-mindedly, as two seventeen year old boys made their way towards them.

"Here comes trouble." Lily grumbled. "Honestly, all he did during our debriefing was talk about bloody Quidditch. I've no idea why he's Head Boy…" Lily's spiel was cut short by James Potter's charming smirk, and a quietly smiling Remus Lupin beside him.

"Ladies." James grinned. Lily visibly rolled her eyes, but James didn't appear dismayed in the slightest. "Good meeting, wasn't it Lily? Glad you're stepping up to patrol the corridors, we can't have any slacking off now."

Lily was moments from gracing James with a rather rude hand gesture before Emmeline shot her a disapproving look. "Actually, the fifth years are in charge of that. Now if you'll excuse me, Potter, Em and I are going to find our friends." Lily's voice was laced with contempt, and she gave an apologetic nod to Remus, who simply shook his head amusedly.

"I'll come with, Lils, I haven't seen Do yet." Remus said wistfully, and the three other teenagers rolled their eyes.

"Moony! We need to find Pads and Wormtail…got things to discuss, y'know?" James emphasised, raising his eyebrows at his lovestruck best friend.

"Sorry mate. Try with the Hufflepuffs, I saw Benjy and Tom boarding." Remus shrugged, and turned around to join the two girls.

"Don't run away from me yet, Em. We haven't had the chance to catch up." James said cheerfully, grinning at Emmeline, who looked at him inquisitively. "Had a nice holiday under the mistletoe, Vance?"

Emmeline's expression turned to one of horrified embarrassment, but she masked it before Lily or Remus could notice. She felt her cheeks flush red, and gritted her teeth. "You two go on ahead." She said softly to Lily and Remus. "James and I need to discuss Quidditch strategies."

"Ems! What was that thing you wanted to tell me?" Lily questioned, and Emmeline could tell by James' arrogant smirk that James knew _exactly _what that thing was.

"Later, Lils. Back at the common room. I'll see you at dinner, yeah? I wouldn't want to bore you with discussing tactics.." Emmeline dismissed Remus and Lily with that, and once seeing they had turned around, grabbed James by the collar and dragged him into the nearest compartment.

"Out." She snapped to the two second year Ravenclaw boys, who took no hesitation in obliging to her demand. James nodded apologetically to the two boys. "Teenage girls. Completely mental, the lot of them." Emmeline silenced him with a single lethal glare, and he let out a low whistle as she slammed the door shut.

"Fiesty, Em. I have to admit, I've never seen this side of you before." James grinned, as he collapsed down into the seat by the window, folding his arms behind his head and lazily stretching his legs across to the opposing seat. Emmeline strutted over to them and wrenched his legs off of the seat, sitting opposite him.

"Right. What do you know?" she demanded. James' cheeky smile didn't falter.

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no li-"

"Potter!"

"Alright. Merlin, calm yourself, yeah?" James suggested. "Sirius snogged you at Sluggy's Christmas break-up. Honestly, it's no big deal, is it?"

"It's not." Emmeline said quickly, covering her surprise. She'd assumed that Sirius would have wanted to pretend it never happened. "Why would he tell you?"

"I dunno, genius. Friends tend to tell each other these things." James shrugged lazily. "But you haven't told any of the girls. Interesting. Are you a wee bit embarrassed by your slip-up?"

"What d'you mean, slip-up?" Emmeline frowned. She and James had become friends on her first day of Hogwarts, when she'd sat next to him and Lily after being sorted- the last person in the year level to have been. They saw straight through eachother. When James was acting arrogant to the level of being pig-headed, it was Emmeline who set him straight. It was also Emmeline who secretly told him things like Lily's favourite colour, sweets, and flower in his desperate bids for her affection.

As for Emmeline, her collected and hardened demeanour was as clear as crystal for James to break through, and he knew it. "You allowed yourself to be human, Emmeline Vance. Allowed yourself to have a few drinks and loosen up. A slip-up to your normal routine." James said, smirking slightly.

"It wasn't the first time I'd consumed alcohol." Emmeline snapped. That story was one she preferred to push far, far out of her mind. It'd happened in their sixth year, they'd managed to get their hands on a bottle of Firewhisky and had drunk it dry- except Lily, who had two sips and pronounced the drink vile..

Dorcas was the quiet drunk, the one who became so sleepy she retired early to bed that evening. Marlene became giddy, overly promiscuous and overexcited, but Emmeline, Emmeline didn't react well. She was the emotional drunk, the one who let all of the couped up emotions and worries come to life. From Lily's word of mouth, she attempted to run away from the safety of their dormitory on six occasions, succeeding on the seventh. Lily had been worried sick about Emmeline, but she'd turned up back in the common room two hours later, with a tear-streaked face and trembling hands, refusing to speak about her night. And when she'd woken up that morning, Emmeline had no recollections of the night whatsoever.

"Y'know, I always hear you four mention that story." James chuckled, jolting Emmeline out of her mental stupor. "I'd love to hear about it someday."

"You and me both." Emmeline muttered, and James quirked his eyebrow up in an entertained fashion. "Look, James just…don't tell anyone, please? And don't tell Sirius we had this conversation." Emmeline stood up to leave.

"What conversation, Em? You haven't answered any of my questions!" James retorted.

"You haven't asked any!"

"Why are you making such a big deal out of this? So you snogged at a party…do you like him or something?"

"Of course not!" Emmeline replied. "It's just…weird. We're friends, you know? I didn't think that was normal behaviour for friends. I mean, I don't go around snogging you!"

James shrugged. "I've never offered." Emmeline rolled her eyes, but he merely grinned in return. "I just think you're making a big deal out of nothing."

Emmeline stopped, sitting back down gingerly. "Nothing?" she said softly. "That's, that's how he described it to you then?"

"Em, that's not what I meant."

"No, it is…and you're right. It was nothing. I'm being stupid."

"Ems…"

"James!" Emmeline shot back, shrugging her shoulders. "Look, we'll just all forget it happened, and we can go back to things being normal again. Yeah?" she said simply, and then slapped her knee as if deciding. "Yeah. Great. Well…my stuff's back in the compartment with the girls, and I better get changed." Emmeline stood back up again and walked to the door, James following close behind her.

When they reached their original compartment, Emmeline slid the door open to reveal Sirius, Marlene and Lily chatting and laughing. "Where're the lovebirds?" she asked casually, sitting down next to Marlene and avoiding Sirius' gaze of slight questioning at her entrance with James.

"Probably off snogging somewhere." Marlene snorted, and Lily laughed, though it subsided as James slid into the seat in between her and Sirius. He placed a casual arm around her, which she almost immediately brushed away.

"Right, well, we should probably go find Wormtail." Sirius said, breaking the silence and standing up to leave.

"Come on now, Pads, I was just getting acquainted." James chuckled, but obliged. "See you ladies at dinner." He smirked, and followed Sirius out of the compartment.

Lily immediately closed the door behind them, and turned to face Emmeline, her expression hungry. "Right. So what the hell was that, ditching me for James?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing. Quidditch talk, like I told you." Emmeline said plainly, shrugging her shoulders. "What were you lot laughing about?"

"We were just talking about the holidays. He stayed with James." Marley answered, and then stood up to pull her trunk down from its safely stowed away position above the seats. "We'd better get changed, train arrives soon, yeah?" Emmeline and Lily nodded, and went to do the same.

"I'm dying to know what you needed to tell me." Lily nudged Emmeline, whispering.

"It was nothing. Just…Dorcas and Rem are really cute, huh?" Emmeline smiled at Lily, shrugging her shoulders. "Kind of makes me jealous."

"Don't worry Ems, we don't need boyfriends. Trust me, if there were any decent blokes around here, we'd have roped them in by now." Lily laughed, and Emmeline chuckled half-heartedly back at Lily.

Nothing. Her encounter with Sirius had meant nothing.

The why the hell did it hurt so much to think that he thought that?


	3. Chapter 2

The sweets on the train which had been consumed long hours ago were hardly enough to sustain the teenagers' rumbling stomachs, and some were more vocal about it than others.

Peter, Sirius, Benjy, Emmeline and Marlene shared a carriage on the ride up to Hogwarts. Lily and James were preoccupied with their leadership duties, and Remus and Dorcas were still nowhere to be seen.

"Bloody hell, Marley, what did you pack in this thing?" Emmeline exclaimed breathlessly, as she and Marlene attempted to hoist her trunk into the carriage.

"Well- you know the graduation ball's this term, and I had to have a few options!" Marlene shrugged, grinning in spite of herself. The two girls lost their handling, and the trunk which was just balancing on the edge of the carriage slid down and landed with a grade thud on the earthy ground, spilling open and revealing its contents.

"Or maybe it's the three bottles of firewhisky, yeah?" Sirius smirked as he strode over to help them out. "Y'know, Hogsmeade has a bottle shop Marls."

"Yeah, because Minnie would really let me enter the castle after that little shopping spree." Marlene retorted, rolling her eyes. She thanked him as he seemingly effortlessly hauled the trunk into the carriage.

"Maybe that's a sign. You girls can hardly handle your alcohol anyway." He grinned, directing a wink at Emmeline who showed little response, except to clear her throat and look away from him.

"I'm hungry. Can we hurry up? Marley's was the last trunk, let's go." Emmeline said flippantly, nodding for the two to follow her as she climbed in the seat across from Benjy Fenwick. It wasn't just the hunger that was getting to her; it was the skeletal, leathery creatures poised at the front of the carriages. She glanced around to see if anyone else was looking at them. Emmeline had been able to see thestrals since her second year at Hogwarts, and her mother had prepared her for them, but they were still a slightly unsettling sight. Marlene tilted her head to one side.

"Can you-" Her hesitant question as cut off by an indignant Emmeline.

"Let's go!" she shook her head, folding her arms across her chest and smiling at Benjy. He knew, and so did Lily, but it wasn't something she talked about freely. Despite their history, Benjy and Emmeline remained good friends, even when he'd had a 'thing' with Marlene.

Marlene's 'things' never lasted long. They were infatuations at most, and fleeting at that. The girls knew that it wasn't just because she claimed she wasn't the relationship type. The one boy she'd actually fallen for, their relationship had been cut short by his graduation back in their fifth year.

"So, had an alright Christmas you two?" Marlene asked pleasantly, nodding across to Benjy and Peter. Benjy simply shrugged contentedly, lazily running a hand through his sandy brown hair. He never spoke much, unless deep in conversation with only one other person, as they'd all worked out.

"I guess so. Reading about everything in the Daily Prophet was not so good though." Peter shuddered slightly before looking up at Emmeline. "I saw your mother's name a few times, Em. Is everything alright?"

"Huh?" Emmeline looked across at Peter, snapping out of the trance she'd fallen into while looking out the window. "Yeah, yeah. Fine. I mean, I'm sure she would have told me if it wasn't." she furrowed her eyebrows slightly, before upturning the corners of her mouth in a small smile.

"Did you guys hear about Mary?" Benjy said quietly, his voice taking a solemn tone.

Mary Macdonald was the fifth member of the Gryffindor seventh year dormitory, but she was very quiet, shyer and more timid than Wormtail even. Despite living with her for so many years, she never really opened up until their fifth year, when they'd jumped to her defence when she was being horrendously bullied by a Slytherin in the year above, Mulciber.

At Benjy's mention of her name, Marlene and Emmeline exchanged curious looks of concern. It had been rather odd that they hadn't seen her on the train.

"No." Emmeline said tentatively, for fear of what he would say next. "What happened?"

"Her parents were attacked outside of Diagon Alley while she was in a shop." Benjy said, his brown eyes widening slightly with worry. "I only hear because Dad treated them in St. Mungo's. It was kept off the papers, and everything. She won't come back to school for a few weeks yet."

Emmeline's mouth dropped open. Surely her mother would have heard about this, and yet she had refused to tell her? She'd write her, tonight, demanding to know why this important piece of information regarding her roommate hadn't been disclosed to her.

Sirius was the one to break the stunned silence. "That's terrible." He muttered blankly, and everyone murmured that they agreed.

The rest of the carriage ride was rather solemn, filled only with worries for Mary's wellbeing and whether or not anyone else in the castle had experience Christmases similar- or worse than hers.

As the carriages abruptly halted outside the castle, Emmeline was quick to scramble to her feet, wanting to get away from the horrid Thestrals. They were such a reminder of darkness, of the evil within people that they made her feel unsafe.

"Slow down, Vance." Sirius chuckled as he climbed down after her. She averted her eyes from the thestrals momentarily to look at him intently, before turning to follow Marlene and the others up towards the castle.

"Wait." Sirius grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back to face him. "Everything's- everything's alright, yeah? Between us, I mean. We're still friends?"

Emmeline took a step closer to him, sucking in her cheeks before replying. "Unless there was a reason for us not to be, then yeah. Still friends."

"Well...good then." He finished tonelessly. "Because you'd tell me, if there was a reason?"

"There isn't that I know of." She blinked, and looked up towards the castle, breaking the awkward conversation for a moment to take in the sweeping turrets and towers of the school. "Come on, then. Don't want to be late for the back-to-school feast."

"No, we wouldn't want that." Sirius muttered flatly, but not loud enough for her to hear as he sighed, and followed her up to the castle.

The Great Hall was already crowded with people by the time the five seventh-years entered. Bidding Benjy a farewell, for the rest of the evening, anyway, they took their seats at the Gryffindor table, Emmeline somehow finding herself rather closely sitting next to Sirius. He didn't appear dismayed or enlightened by this, no, he was impossible to read, and she was finding it rather frustrating.

"There you two are!" Emmeline said brightly, as their Head Boy and Girl made their way towards the Gryffindor table, standing up from the table to make room for Lily to sit in between her and Sirius. The red-haired girl gave her friend a funny look, but sat down next to her, James taking the seat across from them.

Marlene and Dorcas were deep in conversation about potential fashion trends about the Graduation ball, that was still months in the future, but Remus was looking slightly uncomfortable. Peter was fiddling with the ends of his robes, darting glances in every direction as though anxiety had taken its toll on him. Then again, Peter always looked like he was nervous about something.

"Lils." Emmeline said in a hushed tone, tugging on the sleeves of her friend's robes. "Did you hear about Mary?"

Sirius broke off his conversation with James about detention-avoiding strategies to nod for James to listen to what Emmeline was saying. She directed her next comment to both James and Lily as a result.

"She's not coming back to school, not for a few weeks anyway. It was kept out of the papers, but her parents were attacked." Emmeline was unable to keep the expression of worry off of her face, and only Lily could truly understand what she was concerned about. Both girls had muggle parents, though Emmeline had the added threat of having a powerful Ministry representative for a mother, one who many may not approve of being married to a muggle.

"That's awful." Lily muttered, shaking her head to convey her dismay.

"Who did it?" James asked, frowning slightly. Emmeline shrugged her shoulders, but Sirius had more to say.

"I bet it was that lot." He cast a dark glance over to the Slytherin table, and Lily cocked her head to one side.

"A bunch of teenagers? I don't think-"

"He doesn't mean it was them, Lils." Emmeline interjected, locking her eyes with Sirius. "He means…it was that sort of people. The ones who are supporting You-Know-Who."

"Why would they target Mary, though? I mean…she's hardly a threat." Lily whispered, so to keep their conversation private from the fourth years sitting nearby.

"She's not a pure-blood." Emmeline spat angrily. "It's disgusting, the way some families feel the need to…" her voice trailed off into quick silence, upon realising that Sirius was taking in every word. "I mean, his followers. They're very extreme." The damage had been done. Sirius was looking solemnly down at the table, his fists clenched slightly.

"No, go on Em. Some families are just psychotic. I agree." His tone was like walking on ice, and Emmeline was certain she'd just fallen through the cracks into an ocean of freezing water.

There was a bout of silence, broken by James hastily clearing his throat. "Anyone else as hungry as I am?" he chuckled, looking up towards the table where the teachers were sitting, as Professor Dumbledore stood up to make his evening address. "Brilliant." He said brightly, smiling at the others slightly.

Lily returned his expression, and then frowned quickly upon realising that she'd just been civil with James Potter. Emmeline was flushed red in the face, too ashamed of herself to say anything. Sirius looked unreadable as always, and simply clenched his jaw, listening for what Dumbledore had to say.

"I hope you all had a very enjoyable holiday season." Dumbledore smiled warmly at the body of students over half-moon spectacles. "Now, I would like to remind you that in these times of uncertainty, we must all continue to stay united as a school, and that includes abiding by the rules." His eyes swayed over the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables. "These include no magic to be used in the hallways, and may I remind you that curfews are in place for a reason." He paused for effect, a stern expression momentarily gracing his wise face before smiling again. "Now, there are a few students with whom I must speak with urgently before you go to sleep tonight. There will be a notice in your dormitory if you are one of these, and I assure you that you are not in trouble, there is just a matter of utmost importance which needs to be addressed. Please make haste in returning to your houses after dinner tonight.

"Now, without further ado, let us eat!" The feast suddenly appeared on the table, and immediate conversation broke out as the students broke into frenzied hunger.

"What d'you reckon that's about?" Lily whispered to Emmeline, nudging her side.

Emmeline shrugged through a mouthful of mashed potatoes, warily glancing at Sirius. She swallowed uncertainly, sucking in her cheeks. "Lils…you know I didn't mean like, his family. I just forget. I mean, it's a good thing he's so different from them."

"I know that." Lily said quickly. "And I suppose I agree with you, in a way…still, they're his family. I mean, the people who are genetically programmed to love him basically kicked him out last summer."

Emmeline felt her stomach sinking slightly at Lily's words, realising that she'd probably just twisted the knife in Sirius' gut even further. She swore under her breath, pushing her plate away, feeling too angry with herself to continue eating.

"But Ems, you guys are friends, it's not like one comment will make him hate you." Lily reasoned, pouring them both goblets of pumpkin juice.

"Things are already weird between us." Emmeline said under her breath, suddenly aware that Sirius was in extremely close proximity to their conversation. "Look, I'll talk to you back at the dorms…I've got to go to the bathroom." She muttered, scooting back from the table before Lily could object any further.

The castle's dimly lit corridors were eerie during the night-time, especially with the lack of hustle and bustle of students to crowd the hallways. Emmeline dawdled through them, unsure of where she was going. She had just been feeling suffocated in all of the nose and commotion of the Great Hall, so much so that she'd much rather bask in the solitude the hallways provided.

"Oh!" she gasped slightly, upon turning the corner and seeing the shadowy figure of the Ravenclaw Ghost, whom Emmeline called Helena. There were few people whom the 'Grey Lady' trusted with slight conversation, but Emmeline was one of them. Their bond had begun in her first year, when Emmeline had been feeling severely disappointed about being sorted into Gryffindor and not living up to her mother's intelligence.

"Hello, Emmeline." Helena said calmly, hovering a few metres from where the stunned seventeen year old was standing. "Why aren't you at the feast, my darling?"

"Too many people." Emmeline muttered, shuffling her foot along the stone floor of the castle. "I just wasn't in the mood."

"Seems unlike anyone to not be in the mood for being reunited with their friends." Helena swayed slightly, cocking her transparent head to one side. "Do speak of what's on your mind if it troubles you so."

Emmeline ran her tongue along her teeth before answering, unsure of how to phrase her woes. "There's…someone. In particular, and I'm unsure of…things." She said blankly, suddenly aware of how vague she sounded. "I mean, it's hard because…we're friends. And we tease each other to no end, occasionally even insult one another like I did tonight."

"This, someone. I'd assume he'd be a young man, no?" Helena raised her eyebrows slightly. "Do not let your tendency to weigh things sway your heart, like it did mine." She said glumly, turning her head to gaze out the window at the moonlight shining in, before looking back at Emmeline with a solemn expression.

"Weigh things? Like…over think them?" Emmeline chuckled slightly. That was all she ever did. Overanalyse situations, worry about useless things until it drove her mad.

"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying…dear Emmeline, you are only young. You mustn't feel the need to refrain from making mistakes." Helena began to drift away. "For a yearning for perfection is the biggest mistake one can make."

Emmeline took a few moments to mull Helena's words over in her mind, before snapping her head up suddenly. "Wait, what d'you mean like you did?" Helena had already drifted through the walls of the castle, leaving Emmeline very much alone with her confused thoughts.

Sighing, Emmeline began to make her way to Gryffindor castle, pausing every now and then to greet her favourite portraits on the way. As she approached the Fat Lady, she swore under her breath. She hadn't asked Lily for the password.

"Sorry my dear." The Fat Lady said proudly, looking down her nose through the portrait door at Emmeline's pleading expression. "You know the rules. I have standards to uphold in Gryffindor house, you know that.

Sighing, Emmeline slid onto the carpet, leaning her head against the wall next to the portrait hole and clutching her knees in her arms. This wasn't her ideal plan of skipping dinner; she'd been intent on perhaps unpacking and curling up in her favourite armchair by the fire, the one with her initials engraved in the leg. Still, as she shut her eyes and replayed the day's events over and over again in her mind, thinking of Mary and hoping she'd be alright, thinking of Sirius and hoping her careless comment hadn't hurt him, she found herself drifting off to sleep.


End file.
